Bank Honoring An Expired Bonus
I figured I would share a recent experience I had where being proactive and persistent ended up leading to a bank honoring an expired bonus. Late last year my wife had signed up for an Independent Bank checking account offer and triggered the bonus. I decided to sign up for the same offer myself early this year and started to perform the tasks.
I had read about the offer on Doctor of Credit. While we cover the bigger, nation wide bank bonus offers here at Miles to Memories, Doctor of Credit does a great job covering the bonuses for the regional and state specific banks too. So be sure to check out their database for offers in your area.
Independent Bank New Account Offer
Back to my story. I signed up for a new account, using a referral from my wife for an extra $100, and started to perform the requirements to trigger the three tiered bonus. The offer called for some debit card spend, direct deposits and had a minimum daily balance requirement. When my wife did her offer the bonus would trigger within a few days of meeting each requirement. For my account this wasn’t the case for some reason, no bonuses were hitting like they should have.
I went back to the offer to make sure I didn’t miss something and noticed they had updated the offer to expired on their website. That is when I noticed in the terms on Doctor of Credit that the offer expired 12/31/21. I had signed up a few weeks into January of 2022. But, I had remembered there being a landing page listing the offer when I clicked through. That same link was now kicking out an error showing that the offer was dead. Foolishly, I had not taken a screen shot of this when signing up either (don’t be me, always screen shot offers). I should have paid more attention to the expiration dates of the offer when signing up as well.
Trying To Fix My Error, Being Proactive & Persistent
Before I got in too deep I decided to reach out to Independent Bank and see if the offer had tracked anyway since they didn’t pull down the landing page in time. I figured this was a better use of my time than completing everything and then fighting for the offer after the fact (being proactive). Their chat function was pretty useless, as it is with most small banks, so I called into their customer service department.
I asked the rep to verify if the offer was attached to my account. I listed off all of the terms and she said she would need to get with the promotions department to see if it was attached to my account. A few days later she called me back to inform me that the offer was not attached and that it had expired on 12/31/21.
Not Taking No For An Answer
At this point most people would likely give up but I pushed back some (being persistent). I told her that the offer was still showing on the landing page when I clicked through and signed up. I figured this would send up some red flags since banks have some serious regulations about honoring what is written on their site. My other thought was their tech team either likely knew the offer was up after it had expired or could check this out themselves. She took down this information and told me she would call me back after following up with them.
Close to a week went by, and I figured I had gotten the brush off, but I was surprised with a very nice voicemail late in the week. The Independent Bank rep had called back to inform me that they would in fact honor the terms of the offer since the landing page was still live when I signed up. The best part is I have this confirmation saved on voicemail too, should there be any issues after completing the requirements of the offer.
The first two parts of my offer have already triggered and posted as well!
Final Thoughts
I wanted to share this experience to show that not all is lost if things don’t go to plan. It is often worth taking that few minutes to call and follow up on something. You may get the door slammed in your face but you will win often enough to make all the attempts worth it. Also remember to push back when you know you are in the right. Most people will give up after the first no and that is what companies, and their front line reps, are often counting on. I also find it better to get things straightened out before getting in too deep with promotions. It saves you from completing tasks in vain and companies tend to be more willing to work with you up front, before they already got you to jump through all of the hoops.
I applaud Independent Bank for honoring the terms that were listed on their site even if they had technically expired. Have you ever had something similar happen? Let me know in the comments.
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